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Alison Littlewood on Richard & Judy’s Book Club

The video clip above features an interview with the delightful Alison Littlewood, the author of June’s forthcoming Spectral Press chapbook The Eyes of Water – which is already sold out unfortunately. Here, Alison talks about her debut novel, A Cold Season (Jo Fletcher Books), which I highly recommend, as well as the plans she has for her follow-up novel. On this blog next week we will be revealing the blurb for her chapbook. Also look out for a blog-post revealing the cover concept at a future date.

For those not in the know, Richard & Judy are very well-known husband and wife TV presenters here in the UK, who have appeared on a multitude of early morning programmes over the last couple of decades. Some years ago they set a Book Club, in much the same way that Oprah Winfrey has in the States. At any rate, please enjoy watching the video – Alison Littlewood’s name will soon be on the lips of every self-respecting horror fan.

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7 comments on “Alison Littlewood on Richard & Judy’s Book Club”

I’m far from being a fan of R&J, but it’s really good to have a horror writer featured in their book club and a good one at that. The genre has always suffered from either not being taken seriously or by fickle fashion (the current obsession with teenagers and vampires is one I find especially tedious) and it’s no bad thing to have the world know that good horror writing is out there. Littlewood’s success is inspiring.

Indeed, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer person, owlwoman. Alison is an exceedingly charming person, apparently unfazed by all the buzz that’s currently surrounding her, and I must say that I am very proud to be publishing her work through Spectral in a few months’ time. I think a good future is assured her, and I wish her the best of luck with everything…

On a separate note, I too am heartily sick of seeing the endless stream of vampire and zombie fiction being released onto the market currently. Whilst I am sure that some of it is of a good standard, most of it appears to be nothing more than bilge. This is one of the reasons why Spectral was set up in the first place – to promote horror as something OTHER vampires, werewolves and zombies…

Hmm. I believe I’m missing out here somewhat. Whilst a subscription is unfortunately out of the question (I’m a writer: of course I’m broke!) a copy of one of your mighty sounding tomes seems to be in order.

The buzz about Alison got my attention a few months ago, but Cate Gardner’s plug for A Cold Season put it a the top of my buy/read list. The day PS put the book up for preorder, I didn’t hesitate.

As for Simon’s second point, it’s not possible for me to express how tired I’ve become of all the zombie and vampire movies, books and television series. Could it be possible the flood is worse here in the states than the UK? It caused me to alter my buying patterns and go back to my love of ghost, supernatural and ghost stories. The odd and unfortunate thing about that is that there is more of those tales coming from overseas than the U.S.

There seems to be a particular tradition in the UK for ghost stories in particular, in all likelihood an influence from the repeated invasions these Isles have welcomed over the centuries. The Celtic peoples certainly appear to have had a deep affinity for the Other Realm which, despite the dilution of Celtic genes in the years since their arrival, seems to have very much become part of the national soul… hence, masters like M R James, Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen….

Owlwoman: there’s plenty of good stuff to come from Spectral over the next 18 months, including the quarterly chapbooks, two more novellas, the first of the Christmas Ghost Story annuals in December and the first of the Spectral Signature Editions next year, featuring the short stories of World Fantasy Award nominee Simon Kurt Unsworth. In the meantime, paperback copies of the first Spectral Visions novella, “The Respectable Face of Tyranny” by Gary Fry, are available – details can be found here: https://spectralpress.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/the-respectable-face-of-tyranny-the-paperback/ – it’s also available from Amazon in both the UK and US.

Spectral Press

Publisher, on a quarterly basis, of very limited edition signed and numbered single story chapbooks in a quality presentation, and devoted to ghostly/supernatural tales. Also publishes regular novellas and a Christmas Ghost Story Annual every December.

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